The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-02-26

in our religion it would better for them;
to which, being Catholic, he agreed.
An Idaho Revivalist.
| For four weeks past there has been an
old-time Methodist revival here. An elo-
quent preacher has set forth night after
night hell in all its gross and material
istic horrors. On these things he has
constantly preached; viz, material, end
less hell, monstrous personal devil, and
the Universalist minister at this point,
who breaches the heresy that good shall
finally overcome evil. He has warned
me from his pulpit time and again, as
one who "deals out anodyne to opiate
consciences - to use his words. And
as he was constantly misrepresenting
us, called on him one day and said,
81 believe il there is one in Lewiston
who would give the devil his due it is
you;" for thought he had ignorantly
misrepresented us. We had a pleasant
chat, after which gave him Nye's Brief
Statement" of our faith, that he might
know whereof he spoke. In the mean
time l told him that Universalism, as
sometimes preached, seems to have an
immoral tendency, and especially was
this true of it when orthodox ministers
preached It'll The novelty of these meet
ings drew large audience. One night
the minister became very righteously in
| diOnant nr aa rnonv ubo xuara y,rosanf
would say, grew "mad," because some
persons had smiled; and leaving the pull
pit he came down the aisle, and with the
dread countenance of a wild man, he
called upon God to smite the people!
Women were Mortified, men struck dumb
and children were filed with fear. Wo-
men had nervous chills. When he came
before men he stole the color from their
cheeks. And thus he went through the
audience, pouring in thunder tones the
wrath of an enraged heaven over our
heads and stirring the eternal fires under
our feet. He did warm up, tell you.
In the meantime the converts. and mem
bers we're yelling Amen!" Amenl" at
the top of their voices; and one half-wit-
ted lady who had "got religion" was
shouting, Glory to Godl Give it to
them; give it to them!"
There stood up in front, feeling my
self fortunate in that I was sharing in
the general judgment only. But alas!
he came back, and, with stately tread he
walked up in front of me, and with
clenched fist, he called down upon me
those dues held in store for those who
assume more responsible positions.
The Tables Turned.
In the midst of this commotion, took
the gentleman by the hand and asked him
to remember the Christian spirit. He
replied that he did; and that he preached
shell and damnation," and that he did
mot do as 1 did, etc. At this point I
turned to the audience (much of whose
sympathy and love was already mine)
and began dealing out the aforesaid
"anodyne" to the congregation. The
Methodist minister, with powerful voice,
(very few were singing and shouting
"AmenP And what an audience! breath
less, pale and tremblingl preached the
minister still; I preached the singing
still. And the minister and others be-
gan saying "Amen, Glory to God," to
my preaching. And after 1 was through
the minister came around, and before all
gave me his hand and said, "Amen to
that preaching" I spoke about as fol-
lows: By the love of home and of coun-
try; by the love of everything good and
pure, beg of you, leave your shining
and come to the Saviour, come home to
God! And beg of you, by the mercies
of God, who has loved you from the be-
ginning, whose love surrounds you like
vast unfathomable ocean, that you come
home to Godl The church is here and
the gates Of hell shall not prevail against
it. 1 care little for your names; come
and be Methodist, SO you shall be a
Christian. And you must repentl You
are lost now and the gates of light
are closed against you by reason of your
sins; and whether in this world or the
world to come you must repent of your
sins before you can enter the gates of
life. And the fires of hell shall burn
in your own bosoms until they are
quenched by penitential tearsl "Whether
in this world or the world to come" was
that part of my speech that seemed to a
young minister to SAVIOR of future proba-
ton. So he arose and spoke as follows:
"Now, love all you sinners; but out of
Christ you are each cipher in society.
Now place cipher on this board and it
is nothing; place six more by the side Of
it and they are nothing; place a million
more by the side of them and they are all
nothingP Although he had assured them
Of his love, / began to think him the
greatest lover of nothing 1 had ever seen,
and more of a mathematician than theo-
logiaE. Then he continued, saying; 81
take no stock in that Andover contro-
versy; there is nothing in that Andover
CONTROVERSY
The meeting has lasted all through
January, to the disgust of some, to the
profit of some, and to the entertainment
of others.
| The TTniversalist cburch is sfill hara